Young Mom With Stage 4 Colon Cancer Finds Hope Through a New Transplant Option

Doctors at Northwestern Medicine give a young mother with advanced colon cancer that had spread to her liver a new chance at life with an innovative treatment option – a living-donor liver transplant that significantly raises odds of survival.

https://www.healthday.com/healthday-tv/cancer/young-mom-with-stage-4-colon-cancer-finds-hope-through-a-new-transplant-option

When Amy Piccioli (Pee-CHO-lee) went to the emergency room in Los Angeles in 2024, she thought she was dehydrated after a stomach bug swept through her family.

Instead, doctors found something far more serious. A CT scan revealed a mass in her colon and several spots on her liver.

A biopsy confirmed stage 4 colorectal cancer.

“I never had any symptoms of colon cancer prior to my son coming home with the stomach bug. So, it was a total shock for me.” (Amy Piccioli, Transplant Patient)

She learned colorectal cancer is increasingly affecting adults under 50, often with few warning signs and in more advanced stages.

After chemotherapy shrank her tumors, Piccioli started looking into a new treatment option for patients whose cancer has spread only to the liver — a living-donor transplant offered at just a handful of centers.

“Standard treatment is chemotherapeutic agents that go through your whole body to suppress the tumor cells from growing and the five year survival for that is 10%.

We realized that you could do liver transplants. And with the highly selected patients, you could get upwards of 80% survival.”

Piccioli traveled to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where doctors determined she was a strong candidate.

“What really makes her a great candidate is that not only was that cancer not outside of the liver, but she was otherwise very healthy.” (Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, Transplant Surgeon, Director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center)

Then came an unexpected donor. Lauren Prior — the daughter of longtime family friends — turned out to be a match.

And in December 2025, surgeons performed the transplant, removing the remaining cancer.

Three months later, tests show no evidence of disease.

“It's impossible to put into words. It's she gave me life, another chance at life. And, so, I don't... I don't know how you can express that. It means everything.” (Amy Piccioli, Transplant Patient)

Piccioli will remain in Chicago through the end of this month undergoing frequent follow-up scans.

She and her team of doctors urge other patients with similar diagnoses not to give up.

“One of the things we're trying to do at Northwestern is not only change the paradigm of transplant but also educate the public that this is a possibility and we can change 10% survival to 80% survival.” (Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, Transplant Surgeon, Director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center)

Source: Northwestern Medicine

Image Attribution: Adobe Stock

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